Unnoticed, Underestimated, Unpredictable
by tielan
Summary: Maria's previous dates were well within her comfort zone. This is a different kind of date with a very different kind of man. [30 Days of OTP - Day 4 - 'on a date']


**SUMMARY**: Maria's previous dates were well within her comfort zone. This is a different kind of date with a very different kind of man.

**NOTES**: Day 4 of the 30 Day OTP Challenge - 'on a date'. More notes at the end.

**Unnoticed, Underestimated, Unpredictable**

Maria has been on dates before. Contrary to the belief held by the newer SHIELD agents, they were with actual people. Contrary to the opinion of the men who persist in believing that a woman with a will must be a dyke, only one of those dates was with a female. And in spite of her brother Joshua's attempt at humour last Thanksgiving, not all of them have been government spooks.

However, all those dates were well within Maria's comfort zone. Except for the one which ended up involving Chechnyan insurgents and having to call in the troops.

Actually, that one was _also_ in Maria's comfort zone.

This is a different kind of date with a very different kind of man.

Shrieks and squeals rise and fall through the sea-scented air, and the summer sunlight is warm on Maria's arms, warm as the arm slung casually across her shoulders. It's not...uncomfortable, exactly. Just different. And not what she'd expect from the contained and diffident Steve Rogers - physical contact.

"Was there anything you wanted to do?" Steve asks.

"This is your memory lane, not mine. What do _you_ want to do?"

Steve thinks about this for a moment. "Not the Cyclone." He says it so definitively that Maria looks at him, curious. "Bucky took me on it. It...wasn't one of my finest moments."

_Ah. _"You've been on worse things since then."

"Bigger, more dire, less comfortable? Yes. Worse?" Steve shakes his head. "I think we'll save that one for another day."

Maria reflects that her own first time on a roller coaster wasn't all that wonderful either. She'd been out with friends who'd sneaked onto the ride without paying. After hot dogs and cotton candy and a big cup of soda, the conclusion had been foregone.

"We can wander."

He glances at her. "You don't mind doing this?"

"It's not what I'm used to on dates. But that's not a bad thing," she says mildly when he draws back.

"If there's anything you want to do..."

"Wandering is fine." When he continues to look faintly worried, she jostles him with her shoulder and glances out over the water, where the sun sparkles too bright for her eyes. "Coulson used to say I didn't enjoy myself enough."

"You don't," he says promptly. "I mean, outside of work."

Maria has always considered herself fortunate to be in a line of work that she likes and which she's also good at. It may not pay well, but it's meaningful to the lives and survival of Earth, even if it's not always as exciting as interdimensional portals and alien invasions.

"You haven't seen me outside of work that much." She looks up at him with narrowed eyes. "Unless you have."

"No. I just guessed." He's staring across the boardwalk and once again there are memories in his eyes. Maria lets him have the moment – it may be a date, but it's also acclimatisation for him. Not that she's doing this entirely out of the goodness of her heart.

It's a moment for her to relax, to be someone other than Lieutenant Maria Hill with too much work and too many assignments. A moment when she's not an agent of SHIELD, a good subordinate, a dutiful daughter, or a spook who slips easily into the background of the scene, unnoticed, unremarkable.

And, yes, the fact that a good looking, good-hearted guy is accompanying her with attendant interest – however inexplicable that interest might seem – is one for the plus column.

"Would you like me to win you something?"

_Not particularly_. But the expression on his face says this is less about her and more about him. Maria bites back a sigh and doesn't say that she's not a woman for stuffed toys. "Okay."

Watching him toss balls and shoot ducks and grin at her over his shoulder, Maria suspects it's going to be entirely too easy to have her heart broken by this man. It would be simpler to just walk away from Steve Rogers – both on a personal and on a professional level.

There'd be none of the gossip and whispers that will follow her once it becomes known she's seeing Captain America; none of the questions of appropriateness and emotional distance that will dog her from now until never. She won't have to play it harder and colder to get the respect that she, even now, has to play hard and cold to earn.

_They'll underestimate you, of course,_ said Agent Carter when Maria came to thank her for the recommendation letter._ They always do._

_So what do I do?_

The elderly woman smiled, the sharp glitter of her eyes bright and beautiful in the lined face. _Do what women like us do; don't be predictable._

"Should I ask where you've gone?"

Maria blinks up into the face of the man they said Peggy Carter never quite got over. Which just went to show that 'they' were full of shit. "No," she says. "You probably shouldn't."

"Right." He seems uncertain for a moment, then holds out the basketball-sized stuffed polar bear he won. "For you."

He looks so pleased with himself, it's hard not to smile in response. She takes the toy and squishes it experimentally. Cheap bit of fluff, no solidity to it, but kind of cute.

_Don't be predictable,_ Peggy whispers in her head.

Maria looks up at Steve Rogers, honest, earnest, and a danger to the hearts of hardworking female SHIELD agents everywhere, and grins. And watches his expression grow wary.

Riding home on the subway, Maria doesn't smile as Steve manoeuvres awkwardly to let people pass him and the gargantuan Pikachu she won for him at the shooting range.

But her mouth twitches. Just a little.

**fin**

**NOTES:  
** I've put my own headcanon in here – namely that Maria in the MCU was recommended for SHIELD by Peggy. She spotted Peggy in a textbook photograph of one of the Howling Commandos' planning missions and began researching her. Peggy found the adolescent Maria unusual in that she _didn't_ ask about Peggy's relationship with Steve, and began following Maria's career – particularly once SHIELD began taking an interest in Maria as a potential agent.


End file.
